Blade Page #3

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CURTIS:

Pretty.

CUT TO:

INT. HOSPITAL, HEMATOLOGY LAB - NIGHT

MICROSCOPE POV:

of a slide-mounted blood smear stained with Wright stain (blue ink).

What we see is a collection of donut-shaped pink things (red blood

cells) intermingled with some small blue specks (platelets) and the

occasional larger, light-blue blobs (white blood cells).

KAREN JANSEN (20s), a fine-featured hematologist with a social life

in suspended animation, sits back from the microscope, stumped. Next

to her is JULIE WHITAKER, a cheerful chemtech.

KAREN:

You took this off a DOA?

Curtis sits on a stool nearby, slowly nodding.

KAREN:

This isn't human blood.

CURTIS:

Then what is it?

KAREN:

I don't know --

(re:
microscope)

Look at this blood smear --

Curtis takes a look for himself.

KAREN:

The red blood cells are biconvex,

which is theoretically impossible.

They're hypochromic, there's virtually

no hemoglobin in them.

(shaking her head)

Look at the PMNs, they're binucleated,

they should be mononucleated.

CURTIS:

What about the chemistry panel?

Karen looks to Julie, who reaches for a computer print-out.

JULIE:

Blood sugar level is three times the

norm, phosphorous and uric acid are

off the scales.

(shrugs)

Like the woman said, impossible.

Karen removes her glasses, rubbing the bridge of her nose.

KAREN:

Curtis, it's three in the morning. I'm

really not in the mood for one of your

practical jokes.

CURTIS:

(insistent)

It's not a joke. I've got the stiff

sitting in the morgue right now --

look, just come up and see him, okay?

Five minutes, that's all I ask.

KAREN:

I thought you promised to give me some

distance?

CURTIS:

This is purely professional curiosity,

Karen, I swear.

Karen rolls her eyes, lets loose a tired sigh.

KAREN:

Five minutes, not a second more. And I

don't want to hear a word about "us".

CURTIS:

No problem.

INT. HOSPITAL MORGUE - NIGHT

The dead of night, not a mouse in the house. Curtis and Karen, each

garbed in a mask, stand on either side of Quinn's body, which now

rests on the autopsy table.

QUINN'S BODY

A preliminary exploratory Y-incision has been made across the chest,

stretching from shoulder to shoulder, then continuing on down the

abdomen. Ribs and cartilage have been cut open to expose the heart

and lungs.

KAREN:

You haven't started in on the internal

organs?

CURTIS:

Just the blood sample from the

pericardial sac.

Curtis pauses, studying Quinn's disfigured face -- the features seem

much less damaged now -- almost as if the corpse were healing itself.

CURTIS:

That's weird --

KAREN:

What?

CURTIS:

He looks different now, burns are less

extreme, some of these wounds have

closed up --

Curtis pulls out a penlight, flicks it on. He leans over Quinn,

shining the light into one of his eyes.

CURTIS:

Tell me something, honestly, you ever

have second thoughts about us?

KAREN:

(grudgingly)

Sometimes --

Curtis looks up from the corpse, grinning beneath his mask.

KAREN:

-- but then I remember what an

ass-hole you were and I'm snapped back

to reality.

CURTIS:

Jesus, Karen, you're breaking my heart

here --

Quinn suddenly bolts up from the autopsy table, sinking his fangs

into Curtis' jugular. He snaps the man's neck in two for easier

access, sucking in blood like a living vacuum.

Karen stumbles backwards, sending autopsy tools CLATTERING.

QUINN:

rises from the table, flinging Curtis' twitching body aside. He curls

his blood-soaked lips back, baring viper-like fangs, emitting a

GUTTURAL GROWL --

QUINN:

(crazed by thirst)

-- more -- blood --

Karen backs into the corpse drawers, but Quinn is upon her in a half-

second, wrapping a hand about her throat. His mouth opens/morphs

disturbingly wide as if to swallow her head whole, caustic saliva

dripping from his canines --

Karen tries to turn her head away, but Quinn's grip is vise-like. She

finds herself staring into his eyes -- pupils pulsing rapid-fire,

opening and closing, hypnotic --

As Quinn sinks the tips of his fangs into Karen's carotid artery and

starts to nurse --

BANG!!! A load of MAHOGANY buckshot chews into Quinn's side. He HOWLS

in pain. Another load catches him full in the face. He drops Karen.

She falls to the floor --

KAREN'S POV

The sound of RUSHING BLOOD pounding through her skull. Everything

spinning. She struggles to move, turns her head, finds herself eye to

eye with Curtis' corpse.

ON QUINN:

rising, his face torn up, smoking. WHIP PAN TO --

BLADE,

standing at the entrance to the morgue, a streetsweeper auto-shotgun

in hand, sizing Quinn up.

BLADE:

Now don't we look dapper?

Quinn BELLOWS with rage, ripping one of the heavy steel refrigeration

doors from its hinges, flinging it at Blade like it was lawn

furniture --

Blade rolls to the side as the door CRASHES against the wall. Quinn

runs, moving through the morgue like a human tornado, heading for the

windows at the end of the room --

SMASH!!! Out goes Quinn, taking half the wall with him. Blade rushes

to the decimated window, looks down --

BLADE'S POV

Quinn lands on the roof of an ambulance parked four stories below,

caving it in. He springs off, loping across the tarmac on three

limbs, then -SCREECH!-THWUMP!- rolling up onto the hood of an

oncoming car, before disappearing into the night --

BACK UP ABOVE,

Blade spins, SEES Karen bleeding her life away on the floor. She

reaches a hand out to him, beseeching --

Blade pulls away from her grasp, takes a step towards the exit --

then hesitates.

A flicker of doubt washes across Blade's face. He looks down at Karen

once more, wrestling with his conscience, finally making a decision.

He kneels, scoops Karen up into his arms. Just then,

TWO POLICEMEN:

rush into the morgue, weapons drawn --

UNIFORM #1

Hold it, ass-hole!

Blade ignores them, turning to face the window before him. It's a

good thirty feet to the roof of the adjacent building, a parking

structure -- and damned if Blade doesn't seem to be considering the

jump.

The Police close in, agitated. Blade crouches, switches Karen to a

one-handed grip --

UNIFORM #1

I said hold it!!!

-- and jumps.

EXT. HOSPITAL/ROOFTOP PARKING STRUCTURE - NIGHT

Blade clears the impossible distance -- almost. He snags the ledge of

the adjacent parking structure with his left hand even as Karen slips

from the grasp of his right --

-- a last-second save, his fingers clamping around her wrist, is all

that stands between Karen and street pizza. She SCREAMS anyway,

dangling below him --

Blade GRUNTS, swinging Karen like a pendulum, heaving her up and over

the ledge as if she were a sack of potatoes. She lands on her

shoulder, clutching it in pain --

Blade heaves himself up, crouching beside her.

KAREN:

(gasping)

My shoulder -- dislocated --

Blade places a hand on her shoulder, another around her elbow and

without any consideration to discomfort -CRACK!- brutally pops it

back in place. Karen SCREAMS again as he scoops her up once more and

heads for --

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